Today in History

• The Roman Empire is divided (395)
• The Kingdom of Hawaii is overthrown (1893)
• Popeye the Sailor Man debuts (1929)
• Raoul Wallenberg is arrested (1945)
• The Great Brink’s Robbery (1950)
• Eisenhower warns about the “military-industrial complex” (1961)
• The Palomares Incident: Four nuclear weapons are dropped accidentally after an aircraft collision (1966)
• Operation Desert Storm begins (1991)
• The Lewinsky Scandal breaks (1998)

Birthdays

• Benjamin Franklin, polymath (1706 [January 6 on the “old style” Julian calendar])
• Anne Brontë, writer (1820)
• Mack Sennett, director (1880)
• Glenn L. Martin, aviation pioneer (1886)
• Al Capone, mobster (1899)
• Nevil Shute, author (1899)
• Betty White, actress (1922)
• Eartha Kitt, singer and actress (1927)
• Vidal Sassoon, hairdresser (1928)
• James Earl Jones, actor (1931)
• Shari Lewis, ventriloquist (1933)
• Muhammad Ali, boxer (1942)
• Andy Kaufman, performance artist (1949)
• Jim Carrey, actor (1962)
• Michelle Obama, first lady (1964)

Deaths

• Lola Montez, actress, dancer, and royal mistress (1861)
• Chang and Eng Bunker, Siamese twins (1874)
• Rutherford B. Hayes, US President (1893)
• Clyde Tombaugh, astronomer (1911)
• Juliette Gordon Low, founded Girl Scouts USA (1927)
• Louis Comfort Tiffany, artist and designer (1933)
• T. H. White, writer (1964)
• Evelyn Nesbit, “the girl in the red velvet swing” (1967)
• Art Buchwald, columnist (2007)
• Bobby Fisher, chess grandmaster (2008)

Holidays and Celebrations

• Cable Car Day
• Ditch Your New Year’s Resolutions Day
• Kid Inventors Day (US)
• National Day (Minorca)
• National Hot Buttered Rum Day (US)